By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.

Bill to streamline adoptions clears Georgia Senate

Butch Miller

Joshua Silavent

DCN Regional Staff

Updated:
Jan. 19, 2018, 8:24 a.m.

The Georgia Senate passed a bill Thursday to streamline
adoptions in the state after the measure failed last year when an amendment
that critics called anti-LGBT was added.

“I am very encouraged that the bill is picking up momentum,”
Sen. Butch Miller, R-Gainesville, told The Times.

The amendment that would have allowed private adoption
agencies that receive taxpayer funding to exclude same-sex couples on religious
grounds has been removed from the bill.

However, an additional amendment, which Gov. Nathan Deal
vetoed in a separate bill last year, now appears in the adoption legislation.

It would allow individuals or nonprofit agencies to obtain
power of attorney over a child without state oversight.

“The governor doesn’t support the bill in its current form,”
Miller said.

But Miller added that he’s confident lawmakers can work with
members in the House and the governor to get the adoption bill right this time
around.

“We’re going to get it done,” he said.

Proponents have said the bill would make adoptions more
efficient by, for example, nixing a six-month residency requirement for
adoptive parents; allowing birth mothers working with an adoption agency to
receive living expenses; and giving birth mothers the opportunity to waive a
10-day period to regain their child once adopted.